And finally…Amazon to open check-out-less convenience shop

Online retail giant Amazon has announced that its is to open a grocery shop without checkouts where customers can just pick up what they want and leave because they will pay via an app.

The Just Walk Out system detects when items are taken or returned to shelves and tracks them in a virtual shopping trolley using uses the same types of technologies found in self-driving cars.

Amazon has spent four years developing the shop which shoppers enter as they swipe the Go app.

Computer vision, sensors and deep learning algorithms are then used to keep track of what customers are picking up off the shelves.

Once the shopper leaves the store, their Amazon account will be charged and receipt sent to them.

The first shop is expected to open to the public in the American city of Seattle early next year.

Natalie Berg, an analyst at Planet Retail said: “Grocery retail is a crowded sector, and customers have incredibly high expectations of the Amazon brand.

“If they’re going to differentiate, they’ll need to translate the fantastic customer experience that they have created online in a physical store setting. This is no easy feat. Removing the traditional checkout process does exactly that.”

“Despite significant investment in store technology, the checkout experience has been largely ignored.”

The shop will offer ready-to-eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options made fresh every day by on-site chefs or by local kitchens and bakeries.

Grocery essentials such as bread and milk will also be on sale alongside Amazon Meal Kits, with all the ingredients needed to make a meal for two in about 30 minutes.

Ms Berg added: “Retailers have made a lot of progress on mobile payments as a standalone option; however, very few have been successful in moving towards a comprehensive mobile wallet and thereby addressing the problem of long queues. This is where Amazon comes in.”